Vance vs. Pope Leo on what’s a just war
Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast
WNYC Studios
4.4 • 675 Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | from WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Wednesday, April 15th. |
| 0:15.2 | So last night at the University of Georgia, Vice President J.D. Vance, a Catholic, a convert to Catholicism, |
| 0:23.2 | said something interesting about Pope Leo at a Turning Point USA event, and what he said is worth |
| 0:29.6 | sitting with for a moment. The Pope, criticizing the U.S. Israeli war in Iran, had said that |
| 0:36.4 | Jesus, quote, is never on the side of those who once wielded |
| 0:40.4 | the sword and today dropped bombs. Well, Vice President Vance pushed back on the Pope. Here's |
| 0:47.1 | part of what he said, 48 seconds. Pope said something where he said, and I'm going to try to remember |
| 0:53.9 | the exact quote, but he said that |
| 0:55.6 | God is never on the side of those who wield the sword. God is never on the side of those who |
| 1:01.6 | wield the sword. I'm pretty sure that he said that exact statement. Now, on the one hand, again, |
| 1:07.2 | I like that the Pope is an advocate for peace. I think that's certainly one of his roles. |
| 1:12.5 | On the other hand, how can you say that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword? |
| 1:18.1 | Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis? |
| 1:23.7 | Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated Holocaust camps and liberated those innocent |
| 1:29.1 | people from those who had survived the Holocaust? I certainly think the answer is yes. |
| 1:38.0 | And you hear the vice president started to get heckled there at the end, that heckling went on for a little while, |
| 1:44.6 | but the Vice President went on to say this. |
| 1:47.2 | I think that it's important. |
| 1:48.4 | In the same way that it's important for the Vice President of United States to be careful |
| 1:51.6 | when I talk about matters of public policy, I think it's very, very important for the Pope |
| 1:56.7 | to be careful when he talks about matters of theology. |
| 2:00.0 | And what did he mean by careful on matters of theology? |
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